why are all healers "casters"

[Lihtleita]

currently we have three flavors of dps but only one kind of healer.

I feel that we could have much more diverse healers if they werent all contingent on being "caster" types.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Chemist as a potion healer with Mix as a mudra-esque mechanic, maybe in 6.0 or 7.0

but it will still cost MP for balancing reasons.

Please look forward to it.

[CazzT]

I would love to see a melee healer, where their HPS is directly based on their DPS. Unfortunately, this has been tried a few times (see: Disciple of Khaine from WHO), and it always ends up with the class being gutted (read: "balanced") until it's basically just another caster healer.

[Hunky]

Chemist as a potion healer with Mix as a mudra-esque mechanic, maybe in 6.0 or 7.0

but it will still cost MP for balancing reasons.

Please look forward to it.

Chemist sounds like a fun job, but now I'm wondering. Why isn't there a healer job that doesn't use MP?

Now I get why a healer would have to be ranged; their healing skills would have to be able to reach others from a distance. Imagine having to run up to your teammates to heal them. It's like how tanks kinda have to be melee for it to work.

I can see chemists throwing out healing potions that explode into vapors. I can see chemists having skills where they can mix chemicals to have different effects or to boost existing ones. What I don't see is how this would, lore-wise, use up MP.

Would a (ranged) healer job that doesn't use MP be unfair or too powerful? Probably. As you said, it would be for balancing reasons. Unless they found a way to balance it somehow.

If they did, then we can have another healer job that would feel different from the existing ones.

[DamianFatale]

Chemist sounds like a fun job, but now I'm wondering. Why isn't there a healer job that doesn't use MP?

Now I get why a healer would have to be ranged; their healing skills would have to be able to reach others from a distance. Imagine having to run up to your teammates to heal them. It's like how tanks kinda have to be melee for it to work.

I can see chemists throwing out healing potions that explode into vapors. I can see chemists having skills where they can mix chemicals to have different effects or to boost existing ones. What I don't see is how this would, lore-wise, use up MP.

Would a (ranged) healer job that doesn't use MP be unfair or too powerful? Probably. As you said, it would be for balancing reasons. Unless they found a way to balance it somehow.

If they did, then we can have another healer job that would feel different from the existing ones.

Chemist was hinted at in the Hildebrand questline. They were shown to throw their concoctions. They'd very likely be ranged.

[Lihtleita]

Chemist sounds like a fun job, but now I'm wondering. Why isn't there a healer job that doesn't use MP?

better question, do we really need mp when we've done away with tp?

[Barraind]

Because 14 is really bad at the innovation part of being an mmo, and for every step it's taken forward from 11, it took a step back in a different way.

It's the reason red mage is the way red mage is. It's an 11 red mage with a sword that got streamlined into a red 14 class.

Theres a lot of things you can ask "why dont we have x" and the easiest answer is "because it's hard to make into an exact flavor of blue, red or green".

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Chemist sounds like a fun job, but now I'm wondering. Why isn't there a healer job that doesn't use MP?

Now I get why a healer would have to be ranged; their healing skills would have to be able to reach others from a distance. Imagine having to run up to your teammates to heal them. It's like how tanks kinda have to be melee for it to work.

I can see chemists throwing out healing potions that explode into vapors. I can see chemists having skills where they can mix chemicals to have different effects or to boost existing ones. What I don't see is how this would, lore-wise, use up MP.

Would a (ranged) healer job that doesn't use MP be unfair or too powerful? Probably. As you said, it would be for balancing reasons. Unless they found a way to balance it somehow.

If they did, then we can have another healer job that would feel different from the existing ones.

Lore-wise one could explain combat chemistry requiring imbuement of aether to hasten, strengthen or alter the chemical reaction to make it a viable combat technique rivalling conjury.

Balance-wise, it would be difficult to balance a healer being purely limited by cooldowns, especially when considering their "raise" (Phoenix Down). Cooldown too short and it is OP, cooldown too long and it is trash.

[MsQi]

Real time healing is magic, or possibly technology beyond what we know. There is no real world equivalent, not yet, not to the extent we see in games. Healing needs to be applied to player characters. So there will always be the tendency to make healers some sort of caster, casting spells on PCs. Damage based healing is odd, but fun. If it's based on damaging the enemy it needs to either be either "smart heals" were the target is chosen automagically or AOE, where everyone is healed, thus removing the importance of choosing your healing target. So usually that will be a minor part of healing and spells still do the main healing (MW Monk or Disc Priest in wow). SWTOR has 2 tech based healers which might be similar to the chemist concept. One of the healers use to actually shoot to heal, but it was a minor heal and was later removed.

[Berret_Snow]

This reminded me of my D&D Orc Rogue who has healing daggers. He stabs his party to heal them!